BRAC: Supporting children play, learn, and thrive in humanitarian settings
Since 2017, we have partnered with BRAC to establish play labs to support children in humanitarian settings learn, play, and build resilience through play-based learning.
Childhood under pressure
Millions of children are growing up in humanitarian settings, where conflict and displacement disrupt learning, wellbeing and access to safe spaces. In Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where our partnership with BRAC began, this challenge highlighted the need for approaches that go beyond education alone. Through community-driven and environment-friendly play labs that offer safe play-based learning spaces to children where they can continue to learn, build resilience and experience moments of joy, even in the most difficult circumstances.
A partnership built on shared purpose
Building on what we and BRAC learned together in Bangladesh, Tanzania, and Uganda our partnership has expanded to bring play-based learning to more children in humanitarian settings. Today, we support responsive caregiving, early childhood development, children's transition to primary school, and psychosocial support and skills development for adolescents.
The current phase of our partnership includes a new five-year funding that will reach 400,000 children and adolescents living in humanitarian settings in Bangladesh and Uganda. It also strengthens our ability to adapt programmes as needs evolve and enables BRAC to respond quickly with child-focused support during emergencies across Africa and Asia.
Strengthening support for children
Since 2017, our partnership has grown from the first play labs in Bangladesh, Uganda and Tanzania to programmes in more countries across Africa and Asia, reaching hundreds of thousands of children and caregivers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we also supported educational radio programming that reached an estimated 14 million children, helping them continue learning while schools were closed.
Inspiring others to consider culture and play
Today, BRAC's play labs operate in seven countries across Asia and Africa and continue to expand into humanitarian settings. Along the way, our partnership has generated evidence that culturally adapted play and play-based learning can strengthen children's wellbeing, learning, and resilience, while building local capacity and creating approaches that can be adapted and scaled across humanitarian contexts.
Together with BRAC, we hope to inspire more organisations to invest in culturally adapted play as an essential part of children's development.
Partner: BRAC
Partner since: 2017
Geography: Bangladesh, Uganda and Tanzania
Interesting fact: BRAC’s founder, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed received the LEGO Prize 2028 for his pioneering work in children’s education and development
Total funding: DKK 524 million (EUR 70,1 million)
About BRAC BRAC is an international development organisation founded in Bangladesh in 1972 that has partnered with over 145 million people living with inequality and poverty to create opportunities to realise human potential. BRAC works with communities in marginalised situations, hard-to-reach areas, and post-disaster settings across Asia and Africa, with a particular focus on women and children.